Citizen committee presents Bermuda redistricting plan
By Donna C. Gregory ASSISTANT EDITOR

The Chesterfield School Board received its first look at a proposed redistricting plan for elementary schools in the Bermuda District last week. The proposal was developed by the Bermuda Redistricting Committee, a citizen committee of parents and teachers from the district.

The redistricting is expected to impact hundreds of county students as the school system shuffles classroom seats to alleviate overcrowding and opens a new elementary school in the district. Students attending Curtis, Wells, Harrowgate, Marguerite Christian and Enon elementary schools will be affected.

The board is expected to discuss the proposal at its next meeting on Oct. 10, and anticipates the plan will go to public hearing on Oct. 24. According to former Interim Superintendent Kathy Kitchen, school board members may vote on the redistricting plan as early as November.

After public outcry during prior redistricting efforts, the school system created the committee as a way of encouraging citizen participation in the development of a redistricting plan.

"Having done this for 15 years, this is by far the best process we've ever followed. [The committee process] empowers parents, which is very, very important," said School Board Chair Marshall Trammell. Trammell represents the Bermuda District on the board.

However, Trammell did admit, "You will never make everyone happy. We will definitely be hearing from people who have different ideas."

There's no doubt there will be some parents who oppose the boundary changes. Committee members could help temper parents' concerns. "You are going to serve a very important role to this board," Trammell told committee members after they finished presenting their proposal to the board last Friday. "You do represent the community."

The board will probably make only minor changes to the boundary proposal, predicted Trammell. "I don't see anything as an outstanding issue," he said. There were, however, some issues

that committee members were not able to resolve. Specifically, under the committee's plan, Enon Elementary School would still be over 90 percent capacity. The board had wanted all elementary schools in the district to be under 90 percent capacity following the redistricting.

To relieve continued overcrowding at Enon, the committee recommended that students coming from new housing developments in the area be "satellited" to Bermuda's new elementary school.

The committee was also unable to decide which elementary school should be home to the center-based gifted program, opting instead to recommend either Marguerite Christian or the new Bermuda elementary school.

Parents in the Bermuda District will soon receive a letter from the school system, notifying them of the redistricting plan under review. For additional information, including maps and detailed address lists, parents can visit the school system's Web site at www. chesterfield.k12.va.us. The information will also be available for viewing at each elementary school in the Bermuda District.